This invention relates to a cassette intended for building up drawer cabinets of the type that includes a rectangular frontal frame from which two side walls extend, which are interconnected via a rear wall and each one of which includes upper and lower flanges which extend inwards from the appurtenant side walls, the individual lower flange at a free inner edge having an upwardly bent border and the cassette accommodating a drawer, which comprises a frontal piece, a bottom, two side pieces and a rear piece.
Cassettes for drawer cabinets of the kind generally mentioned above are previously known by, for instance, DE 3905843, EP 739177 and EP 739178 . In the basic embodiments thereof, these known cassettes for drawer cabinets are, on the bottom side thereof, formed with four hook-shaped metal sheet portions, which may be inserted and locked in a corresponding number of slit-shaped holes in the top side of a subjacent cassette. The cassettes are commercially available in different embodiments, in particular in embodiments with different heights and width, respectively, whereby the user is offered a large freedom to construct, in a simple way, drawer cabinets adapted to individual needs. Also the possibility of choosing how the drawer should be guided inside the appurtenant cassette is, to a large extent, part of this freedom. In a standard embodiment, the cassettes are equipped with elementary, inexpensive guiding members in the form of two cross-section-wise L-shaped rails of thin sheet, which are welded adjacent to the lower flanges of the side walls of the cassette in the way which is shown, for instance, in EP 739178 (see FIG. 4). However, if the buyer so desires, this standard embodiment may be supplemented with more sophisticated, and relatively expensive guiding members in the form of separate rails which may be mounted on the inside of the side walls of the cassette and the outside of the side pieces of the drawer, respectively, and which are provided with rolls, which facilitate the pushing and pulling, respectively, of the drawer into and out from the cassette. One type of such roll-equipped guide rails is disclosed in EP 739177, although also other, yet more expensive guiding members in the form of roll-equipped rails are found on the market.
In the simple standard embodiment of the previously known cassettes for drawer cabinets, the cross-section-wise L-shaped thin sheet serving as guide rail gives only a mediocre guide ability at the same time as the pushing in and pulling out, respectively, of the drawer frequently becomes cumbersome. Because the drawer as well as the L-rails are made of varnished thin sheet, the friction between the surfaces on the drawer and rails, respectively, being in contact with each other becomes rather large. Furthermore, this contact entails that the layers of varnish wear out during exposure of the proper sheet-metal;
something which in turn may lead to corrosion. Another disadvantage of the known cassettes for drawer cabinets is that the L-rails require a particular, cost-demanding welding operation in connection with the manufacture.
The present invention aims at obviating the above-mentioned inconveniences of standard embodiments of previously known cassettes for drawer cabinets and at providing an improved cassette for a drawer cabinet. Therefore, a primary object of the invention is to provide a cassette for a drawer cabinet, the means of which for carrying and guiding the drawer is structurally simple and inexpensive at the same time as the same permits a good guiding of the drawer in connection with the pushing-in and pulling-out, as well as offering a low frictional resistance against said motions so as to facilitate the handling of the drawer by the user. An additional object is to provide a cassette for a drawer cabinet, the drawer of which does not risk to have the varnished coating thereof worn out by the contact with the guiding means of the cassette.